diff --git a/paddle/setup.py.in b/paddle/setup.py.in
index 0b62436a7f81682d5279c3b307ac1abf09eafffb..06d55d3abc6097fa7d4b2b2ac9e29681e0fddfd5 100644
--- a/paddle/setup.py.in
+++ b/paddle/setup.py.in
@@ -23,7 +23,7 @@ setup(name="py_paddle",
       install_requires = [
         'nltk>=3.2.2',
         'numpy>=1.8.0',      # The numpy is required.
-        'protobuf>=${PROTOBUF_VERSION}'    # The paddle protobuf version
+        'protobuf==${PROTOBUF_VERSION}'    # The paddle protobuf version
       ],
       url='http://www.paddlepaddle.org/',
       license='Apache 2.0',
diff --git a/python/setup.py.in b/python/setup.py.in
index 83e505f566d9b29e14aaed08ffe23b8c18fcc95f..59e967df7198c111e0b6ca7f994d32bf32f0d426 100644
--- a/python/setup.py.in
+++ b/python/setup.py.in
@@ -16,7 +16,7 @@ setup(name='paddle',
       packages=packages,
       install_requires=[
           "numpy",
-          "protobuf==3.1.0",
+          "protobuf==${PROTOBUF_VERSION}",
           "matplotlib",
       ],
       package_dir={